Vehicles that traverse a roadway must deal with irregularities in the roadway such as bumps and depressions. Many wheeled vehicles incorporate damped suspensions. The damping force levels are usually a compromise between low speed damping support of the vehicle body movements and high speed damping of bumps and depressions. Too much low speed damping for improved body control can result in a harsh ride at higher speeds with hydraulic dampers, because the hydraulic damping force is a function of the velocity of the piston and this force typically increases as the velocity increases.
What is needed is a damper that provides adequate low speed damping for improved body control, without increasing the harshness of the vehicle ride at higher speeds. The present invention does this in novel and unobvious ways.